This invention relates to wrist support at a desired angle for athletic activities that include golf, tennis, baseball, football and baseball and for medical use, such as the prevention and treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome.
There are numerous known wrist-support devices for athletic activities. Each has a slightly different way of mechanizing a body to overcome or to teach overcoming of natural wrist bending and movement. Significant achievements have been attempted with relatively subtle differences in prior art. Each attempt has been an adaptation of fastening an arm piece to a hand piece at a desired angle in order to train wrist movement for mechanization naturally. Mechanizing naturalness of wrist-movement structure, however, has remained very illusive. It appears that a major factor for success and effectiveness of the mechanization includes ease of use. It must be effort-effective for mental acceptance. For this, minor physical differences can cause major results.
The first factor in the effort-effective equation is that the present invention provides a novel wrist brace with a fingerless glove for physical effectiveness and ease of use. The glove is made of a compression type material in order to snugly fit on user""s hand. The snug fit will prevent excessive bulkiness which would inhibit the user""s grasp.
The second factor is that the brace of the present invention is located on the back of the user""s hand. The palm area is free of any braces or straps which would impair user""s ability to securely grasp items while using the brace. Similar wrist braces disclose the use of two braces, one on the palm side of the hand and one on the back side, in order to maintain the wrist at a desired angle. Others consist of adjustment straps placed in the palm area in order to maintain the hand in close proximity with the brace. Although the goal of having these devices placed in the palm area so as to maintain the desired angle of the brace is achieved, the significant defect is that users are severely restricted in their ability to grasp objects comfortably and securely while using the braces.
The final factor of the effort-effective equation is that the brace is very lightweight, about xc2xd an ounce. The present invention drastically reduces the weight of the brace by 1) being made of carbon graphite, a very lightweight yet sturdy material, and 2) having a reverse C-shaped curved cut-out removed from the brace to remove excess mass of the brace. Similar wrist braces are heavy, thus continually making user consciously alert to the fact that he or she is using a brace.
Combining these three factors, a glove made of a compression type material, a xe2x80x98palm-freexe2x80x99 device, and a very lightweight brace with a reverse C-shaped curved cut-out, makes the present invention distinguishable from prior similar braces.
Examples of most-closely related known but different mechanization of wrists are described in the following patent documents:
Objects of patentable novelty and utility taught by this invention are to provide a wrist-angle brace which:
is easy to put on and take off of the wrist;
holds the wrist with sufficient pressure against an angled rigid form to provide reliable feel of the angled form and still have sufficient freedom to move for a person""s sensory system to exercise feel for the angled position independently of the wrist-angle brace for effective wrist-angle training;
is form-fitting and lightly cushioned for comfort;
is simple and convenient to handle;
can be adapted to desired wrist angles; and
is adaptable to arm-size and arm-height positioning.
This invention accomplishes these and other objects with a wrist-angle brace having a predeterminedly resilient fingerless glove with an aft-wrist brace. The aft-wrist brace is contour-angled as a stop-wall against which the wrist is urged with a level resilience pressure of the fingerless glove that allows the wrist to overcome the resistance pressure for practicing feel of the contoured angle independently of the wrist-angle brace. The wrist-angle brace is extended from a base portion that is strapped onto the arm with adjustment for arm and hand size. The wrist-angle brace is inserted into a pocket attached to the back side of the resilient fingerless glove so as to keep the hand in close proximity with the hand part of the brace, thereby maintaining proper hand form. A brace angle of the wrist-angle brace can be built in permanently for a dedicated embodiment or adjustable for an adjustable embodiment having an angle adjuster.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention should become even more readily apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading of the following detailed description in conjunction with the drawings wherein there is shown and described illustrative embodiments of the invention.